A quarterly newsletter from the Botany Dept (NMNH) and the U.S. National Herbarium.

Awards and Honors

02/26/2019

The National Museum of Natural History presented the 2018 Peer Recognition Awards on December 11. Award recipients are individuals and teams who have given their time and talent to the museum above and beyond what their jobs call for, and to those who have done something that makes a difference in the outside community, for the museum, or for the larger Smithsonian community. The Peer Recognition Award Committee is composed of 14 Museum staff members representing a cross-section of the entire museum community.

Ten awards were presented at the ceremony. Department of Botany’s Ida Lopez and Ken Wurdack, and volunteers Julia Steirer and Lou Woody received the Green Thumb Team Award. The following is taken from 2018 Award Program:

When the unexpected happens and a solution is not in sight, unsung champions often rise and make things right. When the Museum found itself without a green house manager, these four individuals stepped up and decided to do what they could to care for, maintain and protect a valuable collection of nearly 6,000 living plants at the Botany Research Greenhouse. Museum volunteers Julia Steier and Lou Woody worked numerous hours watering, pruning, and trimming plants in addition to cleaning floors, equipment and anything else that needed attention. Ida Lopez’s devotion is evident by bringing the volunteers together, overseeing the plant care, ensuring all tasks were covered, and providing contracted resources as needed. The greenhouse is a living and breathing facility and its systems are essential to providing the environment for the collection to thrive. Without any professional training in facilities management, Ken Wurdack assumed the necessary duties. By troubleshooting systems and partnering with SI facilities experts, he helped keep the greenhouse facility in working order, monitored structural and mechanical systems, and obtained service and repairs when needed. The sacrifice of the team to save this valuable collection has allowed their fellow curators, and the national and international research communities, to continue their research on living plants. The plants housed in this facility are an important reservoir for genome-quality tissue, and the conservation of these rare and threatened species is vital to our research mission. Without their exceptional efforts, these collections would have perished.

11/15/2018

The American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) has selected Vicki Funk as its 2018 Asa Gray Award recipient. The prestigious award—named after arguably the most influential North American Botanist of the 19th century—recognizes lifetime achievement in plant systematics.

Funk was selected for the award following nominations and supporting letters submitted from 18 botanical and systematic experts. The primary nominators—Dennis Stevenson, Chelsea Specht, and Warren Wagner—indicate that “Dr. Funk epitomizes the most meritorious type of scientist for the Asa Gray award: an indefatigable and innovative evolutionary biologist, a field and herbarium botanist, a pure taxonomist, and an enthusiastic mentor.” In support of Funk, they continue, “Her career hallmarks include prolific and transformative research, innovations to the ways we do systematic botany … significant contributions to plant taxonomy rules and regulations, mentoring of a continuous stream of young botanists, and contributing to the excellence of [ASPT] and its mission in promoting plant systematics and plant taxonomy.”

Indeed, the hallmarks of Funk’s career are noteworthy, including more than 200 peer-reviewed papers and as an editor/author on nine collaborative books. One of these, Systematics, Evolution, and Biogeography of Compositae (2009), is a prominent tome that brought together virtually all the researchers of the world’s largest plant family. The book was the winner of the prestigious Stebbins Medal, demonstrating its high international praise. Funk has also produced many seminal papers on topics such as phylogenetic patterns and hybridization (1985), the highly regarded how-to book The Compleat Cladist (1991), systematic data in biodiversity studies (2002), and the first book using modern phylogenetic approaches in a standardized way to address biogeography on oceanic islands (Hawaiian Biogeography, 1995). For all of the nominators, it is clear that Funk’s name is not only synonymous with Island Biogeography, but her momentous work has also systematically built the foundations on which many plant researcher’s careers have flourished.

11/05/2018

Marcelo Pace and Andrew Rozefelds received an award in recognition of their recent paper describing the discovery of the first wood fossil of Vitaceae in the Southern Hemisphere. The Journal of Systematics and Evolution presents awards annually to recognize the papers published in JSE with important impact in systematics and evolution. The paper “The first record of fossil Vitaceae wood from the Southern Hemisphere, a new combination for Vitaceoxylon ramunculiformis, and reappraisal of the fossil record of the grape family (Vitaceae) from the Cenozoic of Australia” <https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jse.12300> has won the JSE Outstanding Papers award.

External appearance of the permineralized stem of the fossil Austrovideira dettmannae. Note tessellate bark with vertically oriented fissures, similar to modern grape vines.

08/20/2018

Manuela Dal Forno is now a Peter Buck Postdoctoral Fellow under advisor Eric Schuettpelz. Her project title is “Starting from scratch: Using whole genome sequencing to understand lichenization in Basidiomycota.” Dal Forno received her Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences and Public Policy with an emphasis on lichen molecular systematics from George Mason University in May 2015. She is interested in understanding the evolutionary relationships and biodiversity of lichens, particularly tropical lineages of basidiolichens. During her Buck Fellowship, Manuela will sequence the genomes of both partners in the symbiosis Cora­-Rhizonema to investigate patterns of gene loss and gain associated with the lichenization process; to assess presence of horizontal gene transfer; and to develop new genetic markers to understand the remarkable diversity within the Dictyonema clade (Basidiomycota, Agaricales).

Peter Schafran presented a poster “The Isoëtes flaccida (Isoëtaceae) complex in the southeastern United States,” on 18 May at the Smithsonian Botanical Symposium in Washington, DC. Schafran also presented a lecture on 5 June to the Botanical Society of Washington titled, “Botanizing in hostile territory: field work in Iraq and the Deep South.”

08/13/2018

The Department of Botany and the United States National Herbarium present the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany to a botanist and scholar of international stature who has contributed significantly to advancing the field of tropical botany. The award is named in honor of Dr. José Cuatrecasas, a pioneering botanist and taxonomist, who spent nearly a half-century working in the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Botany. Cuatrecasas devoted his career to plant exploration in tropical South America and this award serves to keep vibrant the accomplishments and memory of this outstanding scientist.

The winner of this prestigious award is selected by a committee made up of four botanists on staff in the Department in consultation with other plant scientists outside of the Smithsonian Institution. Nominations for the Medal are accepted from all scientists in the Botany Department. The award consists of a bronze medal bearing an image of José Cuatrecasas on the front with the recipient’s name and date of presentation on the back. Highlights from past presentations to the recipients are available at <http://botany.si.edu/cuatrecasas/cuatrecasasMedal.cfm>.

Alan K. Graham is the 16th recipient of the José Cuatrecasas Medal for Excellence in Tropical Botany. Graham received B.A. (1956) and M.A. (1958) degrees from the University of Texas. His Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1962 under paleobotanist Chester Arnold was followed by postdoctoral work at Harvard University. He had a long tenure (1964–2002) as a Professor of Biological Sciences and Geology and distinguished teacher at Kent State University, and since 2002 has been a Research Associate at the Missouri Botanical Garden. He has published over 200 scholarly works, including authoring four books. His latest book, Land Bridges: Ancient environments, plant migrations, and New World connections, was published in March 2018 by The University of Chicago Press. He has endowed research funds and been honored with Paleobotany and Biogeography, A Festschrift for Alan Graham in His 80th Year (Missouri Botanical Garden Press, 2014), and the Asa Gray Award from the American Society Plant Taxonomists (2009).

Graham’s long interest in pollen and utilizing microfossils to track American vegetation history included starting a reference slide collection, as an undergraduate, that eventually grew to 25,000 slides when it was gifted to the Smithsonian in 2008. His long-term studies on Neotropical paleobotany were supported by the National Science Foundation and have focused on late Cretaceous and Cenozoic terrestrial paleoenvironments. The Cuatrecasas Medal selection committee took special note of Graham’s focus on understanding the origins and history of neotropical floras that has culminated in impactful synthetic works. This paleo-perspective, which spans Central America, South America, and the Caribbean, is of special relevance to this year’s Smithsonian Botanical Symposium.

05/31/2018

The Department of Botany recently awarded five recipients with 2018 travel awards. Three awards were funded through the Jose Cuatrecasas Fund, one from the Harold Robinson Fund, and one from the Ruth & Lyman Smith Fund. The dates of their visits are subject to change.

Cuatrecasas Fund

Juan Fernando Carrión Rodríguez from Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Brazil, for his project, “Phylogeny and biogeography of Bernardia (Euphorbiaceae), with a synopsis of the South American species.” His proposed dates are May/June 2018.

Israel Lopes da Cunha Neto from University of São Paulo, Brazil, for his project, “Nyctaginaceae: Diversity and evolution of the vascular system.” His proposed dates are August/September 2018.

Vivian Oliveira Amorim from Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana, Brazil, for her project, “Phylogeny of an endemic clade (Eupatorieae, Asteraceae) from Espinhaço Range, Brazil.” Her proposed dates are September 2018.

Ruth & Lyman Smith Fund

Susy Juanita Castillo Ramón from Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru, for her project, “Updating taxonomy, phylogeny and biogeography of Gentianella from Peru.” Her proposed dates are October 2018.

Research Associates Joseph H. Kirkbride, Jr. and John Wiersema and co-authors Piero Delprete (Institut de Recherche pour le Développement) and Alan Franck (University of South Florida) have been awarded the 2017 Richard and Minnie Windler Award for Systematics from the Southern Appalachian Botanical Society. They received the award for their published article “A new weed in Florida, Spermacoce latifolia, and the distinction between S. alata and S. latifolia (Spermacoceae, Rubiaceae)” in the journal Castanea (82: 114-131; 2017).

Graduate student Peter Schafran received funding from the Washington Biologists’ Field Club to collect members of the Isoetes riparia complex from the upper Potomac and Delmarva Peninsula.

02/19/2018

The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) presented the 2017 Peer Recognition Awards on December 12, 2017. Award recipients are individuals and teams who have given their time and talent to the museum above and beyond what their jobs call for, and to those who have done something that makes a difference in the outside community, for the museum, or for the larger Smithsonian community. The Peer Recognition Award Committee is composed of 14 NMNH staff members representing a cross-section of the entire museum community.

Fifteen awards were presented. Department of Botany staff and contractors, both current and former, were presented with three awards.

Zachary Lynch (NMNH Collections Program) received the “Digitization Powerhouse Award.” Digitization projects link specimen data and acquisition data, creating digital associations between analog card catalogs that allow these data to be more easily discoverable and accessible to collections staff and researchers here and around the world. When it comes to the hard work of transcribing data, nobody accomplishes more in a day than Zachary Lynch. Over the last year, Zachary has scanned and transcribed over 53,000 Botany mounting tags and over 10,000 Division of Birds donor cards, which averages out to well over 200 cards per day. What was expected to take many months to accomplish was finished by Zachary in record time due to his skill and determination. Zachary has accomplished all of this with an incredibly low error rate and an unshakeable, infectious enthusiasm for his job. Since Zachary’s start as a Project SEARCH employee in 2014, he has become an invaluable member of the NMNH community. His incredible work ethic has inspired his colleagues to tackle digitization projects that they previously considered too time-consuming to complete – no project is too big for this digitization powerhouse.

Liz Zimmer (Botany), along with Cari Corrigan (Mineral Sciences), Dave Hunt (Anthropology), Neal Woodman (Vertebrate Zoology), and Torsten Dikow (Entomology), received the “Super Mentor League of NMNH Award.” This team exemplifies the values of mentorship, community building, and teamwork. These super-stars form the fabric of the mentoring community for the Natural History Research Experiences (NHRE) intern program. Of the 95 NHRE mentors, this team stands apart: in 2017, they each mentored five or more interns in the program, and attended professional conferences to facilitate networking and disseminate their students’ research projects to the broader scientific community. Providing a life-time commitment, this league mentors former interns, providing letters of recommendation and guidance on follow-up projects. These individuals are the Super Mentor League of NMNH.

From the exhibit Objects of Wonder: Pollia condensata, native to Africa, uses structural coloration instead of pigments to produce the most intense color of blue ever studied in biological tissue. (photo by James Di Loreto)

One hundred forty-two. That’s the magic number of passionate curators, collections specialists, conservationists, educators, exhibition specialists, administrators, photographers, communications specialists, development specialists, and others who contributed to a remarkable new NMNH exhibition collaboration called Objects of Wonder. Telling the stories of our vast and varied collections through text, graphics, multimedia, and the objects themselves is no easy feat. Working together this team created a truly awe-inspiring exhibition which opened in March of 2017. Even after opening, members of the team continue to give tours, engage visitors, showcase it to potential donors and have already started planning object change outs. That “Oh Wow!” you hear outside of the glass sliding doors to the gallery is just a sample of the accolades this diverse team hears every day. The collaborations involves all NMNH departments and functions and this is truly a wonder. Receiving the “Wonder Team Award,” from the Department of Botany are Walter Adey, Robert Faden, Nancy Khan, John Kress, Gary Krupnick, Sue Lutz, Melinda Peters, Alice Tangerini, Warren Wagner, Ken Wurdack, and Stan Yankowski.

08/31/2017

On May 24, Alice Tangerini hosted a workshop for the winner of the “Saving Endangered Species Youth Art Contest.” Tangerini, along with eight other artists, photographers and wildlife naturalists, were the judges for the national contest, which included all ages in the grades kindergarten through high school and required sifting through the artwork of 60 semifinalists by an online review. A conference call with all nine judges decided the winners in the four grade categories and the top grand prize went to a local Washington, DC native, seven-year-old Sanah Hutchins. Her winning entry, the Rusty Patched Bumble Bee, a species that had just retained status in the endangered species category shortly before the contest deadline. The prize for Sanah was a visit to Tangerini’s office and a private drawing lesson with Tangerini. Sanah, her parents, and grandparents in attendance, walked through the fifth floor hallway, encountering Greg McKee who gave a short and informed talk on botany and collecting.

For the lesson, Tangerini supplied photos of bees pollinating, a collection of pinned bees provided by Sean Brady of the Department of Entomology and a sample painting on drafting film of a bee on Echinacea. Sanah, a disciplined young artist, followed directions making her own painting from the photos and even doing some back painting on the film. The family took many photos and posted them on social media sites, and the contest and event even had a feature in a local D.C. newspaper, The Northwest Current. A ceremony and reception took place in the evening at the U.S. House of Representatives Rayburn House Office Building where Sanah received a plaque and many accolades for her artwork.

08/21/2017

Warren Wagner received a “distinguished service” award at the annual American Society of Plant Taxonomists (ASPT) banquet in June. The award recognizes Wagner’s service in overseeing the ASPT endowment for more than a decade and improving it to more than $1 million.